- Created by Leslye Headland
- Based on Star Wars created by George Lucas
- June 4, 2024 to Present
- Disney+
Cast
- Osha, Mae Aniseya-Amandla Stenberg
- Young Mae and Osha-Leah and Lauren Brady respectively
- Garethan Sol-Lee Jung-jae
- Yord Fandar-Charlie Barnett
- Jecki Lon-Dafne Keen
- Vernestra Rwoh-Rebecca Henderson
- Mother Aniseya-Jodie Turner-Smith
- Indara-Carrie-Anne Moss
- Qimir-Manny Jacinto
- Torbin-Dean-Charles Chapman
- Kelnacca-Joonas Suotamo
Guest Cast
- Tasi Lowa-Thara Schöön
- Mother Koril-Margarita Levieva
- Eurus-Abigail Thorn
A group of Jedi investigate a series of crimes by a mysterious assassin.
That is the plot of the series.
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Lost/Found
- Written and Directed by Leslye Headland
- June 4, 2024
A mysterious Force user makes themselves known as part of a revenge plot.
Maybe it was the presence of Carrie-Ann Moss (and most likely it was) but the opening fight felt a little like they were trying to emulate The Matrix. You have two Force users and the Jedi doesn’t pull out the lightsaber till the very end? I get playing up the major thing of your biggest star but dumping the big thing your universe is known for seems silly. Especially when it would have ended the fight quickly.
And for a show that made a big deal out of having Carrie-Ann Moss in it offing her character within the first five minutes was extremely harmful to the prospects of the quality of this series. Which brings up something else: in universe consistency. Moss’s character of Master Indara is killed by a kunai knife while in Ahsoka Sabine Wren survived a lightsaber while in The Force Awakens Han died by one. How does that track?
Allowing your face to be seen comes off as a very stupid move even if our villain did kill their intended target. Though in a fictional universe with all sorts of cool and near magic technology the Jedi hunting the assassin just run with a physical description and nothing else. The face reveal though gives a major clue that aids in the investigation though that face reveal will lead the Jedi to her. At the moment I can buy that she is an alternate personality of our main character Osha (Amandla Stenberg).
Amandla Stenberg who is playing the character apparently at the center of it all is far from interesting as a performer. She plays her character like it’s out of a teen drama rather than a character in a Star Wars movie who had at least enough in her to last a few years in the Jedi. She is pouty and dismissive of others. Why are female characters written like this today? Where are the Sarah Connors or Princess Leias for the modern audience?
But then again the characters presented generally have little depth or complexity. They are shallow and have one defining characteristic. Young Jedi Knight Yord Fandar (Charlie Barnett) is the dutiful pretty boy who gets schooled by those around him. As often wrong as he is you need to question how he not only became a knight but was granted a padawan.
There are some elements meant to push the story forward that make zero sense. Such as when the Jedi arrested Osha why didn’t they take her with them? Why did they dump her on a prison transport? They believe she killed a Jedi which means she’s a skilled fighter at the minimum and most likely a Force user which was stated about Osha. It makes little to no sense to put this individual on a vessel with regular security.
And after an escape attempt by other convicts Osha’s prison transport crashes. The authorities recover the escaped convicts from that prison transport in their escape pods I’m guessing not far from the planet yet didn’t bother to investigate the wreckage of the ship? The one you really care about is unaccounted for so you decide to wait for, well, reasons. Huh?
The episode was simplistic. It wasn’t as richly packed as a Star Wars film nor as well-crafted as Andor. Admittedly they are introducing a new time frame to the Star Wars universe but even in the first film Star Wars felt lived. This doesn’t feel as if it exists beyond the confines of the scene being watched. The pacing is slow. It just casually walks along as it introduces the characters and the events making any reveals unimpactful such as the reveal of the Sith Lord at the end. I was just like “Okay.”
While the costuming was good, the make-up effects (some of them possibly accomplished by CGI) lacked the usual flair of Star Wars. For me, I couldn’t help but think of bargain basement science-fiction from the heyday of first-run syndication. The bartender in the opening scene was a much better-looking character than either of the two padawans that we meet in this episode. Vernestra (Rebecca Henderson) looks like somebody bought some cheap costume makeup and slathered it on. There is no nuance that makes it look real in this age of high definition.
They are clearly going for some theme of duality with twins and one being good while the other is evil. They drive that home with the title of the episode. Or maybe-and I think this is a little more likely somehow-Osha is suffering from a split personality. We do have Force projection as a thing and as demonstrated elsewhere those projections can interact to an extent with the physical world.
I was not impressed with Lost/Found. I will continue to watch out of curiosity, but The Acolyte looks to be a bit of a letdown.
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Revenge/Justice
- Directed by Leslye Headland
- Written by Jason Micallef and Charmaine DeGrate
- June 4, 2024
Mae targets a meditating Jedi on the planet Olega.
“Attack me with all your strength.” Even in a fictional universe like Star Wars with some of its dialogue that’s still rather awkward and generally unnatural. And how does the evil twin Mae (Amandla Stenberg) so effortlessly sneak into the Jedi temple on Olega? Jedi have a level of extrasensory perception but Mae is able to sneak around as if they are all regular people. And no security measures to be safe? Nah. That feels a lot like lazy writing and plot contrivance.
Amandla Stenberg fails to sell either part she plays. She’s short. She lacks physical presence or that undefinable quality that makes someone appear tough when they walk on the screen. She comes off more as a bratty child rather than a tough warrior or former Jedi. Her line delivery is bland.
So they had an initial break in and took no precautions at the Jedi temple. The Jedi master who discovered (and I use that term loosely) the break in realized or assumed that the intruder left through a big opening in the ceiling yet at the minimum the next day, there doesn’t appear to be any Jedi guarding it. It seems stupid to not take precautions but allows us to get to the next leg of the story easier.
And a Jedi master dies and the Jedi master who’s in charge of the temple seems a little confused why Coruscant would send somebody to investigate the death of a Jedi. Really? Who writes this stuff? I’m not sure if they really thought things through here. Did the writers of this episode just wing it?
And Jedi knight pretty boy Yord Fandar (Charlie Barnett) is supposed to be following Osha and watching her from the shadows. How close is he watching? Did he not see the dead Jedi on the floor? If he didn’t then he couldn’t be watching her that well. If he did, then why didn’t he come and see what was going on? Nobody thinks to ask that when he says he was watching her after he pops in to declare her innocence when she is found with the body
Osha uses a stun gun here. But be careful. If you don’t hit a person that stun gun blows stuff up. Huh? Does this show not understand logical consistency. If it stuns it shouldn’t cause explosions. Even in a fictional universe with evil and good space wizards that doesn’t work! The power to stun is less that the power to make stuff explode.
It doesn’t make sense for the Jedi when they know the next target of the assassin wanting to have a discussion rather than going to the next target and not only warning them but preparing for the assassin’s arrival. Is this an indication of a greater plot or is it just bad writing? I’m guessing bad writing.
Master Sol (Lee Jung-jae) is clearly carrying around guilt for something. And I’m betting it’s not that he poorly trained Osha. It’s something deeper and darker. At least what the writers perceive as deeper and darker or maybe he just has guilt that will never really be explained. There is no hint at what else it could be, but there are plenty of hints at what it is not.
The floating Master Torbin (Dean-Charles Chapman) made me laugh. Not because they were floating and in some kind of an in a Jedi meditation but because the beard and the hair looked really fake. It reminded me cosplay of Landon in the original Planet of the Apes. But worse it was trying to make a younger person look older and wiser.
Inexplicably throughout this whole episode our experience Jedi Master Sol is putting a lot of faith in someone who has learned not only that their sister is alive, but that her former master may have lied about her sister’s death. At the minimum he should be concerned about her actions. This is a big revelation for any human being even in a fictional world.
I guess my problem with this episode, and the one before is that there are many elements that defy logic be it the logic of Star Wars or a minimal real world of logic. Whether or not it makes sense is not as important as getting the scene in the can and up on your screen to those making this.
So far I don’t have much hope for what is to come, but being that I love Star Wars and I’m curious, I will give it a shot.
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Star Wars was a good versus evil story with the Jedi representing ultimate good and the Sith or any Darkside users representing ultimate evil. I guess you can blame the prequel films for it but I don’t think it was necessarily the Jedi being evil but rather shortsighted. My point is that this show and some of the more recent material as well have not been kind to the Jedi with the implication that the Sith are not always wrong and the Jedi can be evil. Really? Moral relativism is a thing in writing these days. And the smack that gets talked about concerning the Jedi here is a display of that moral relativism.
Leslye Headland has claimed to be a fan of Star Wars. That may be so, but that doesn’t mean they understand Star Wars enough to create a new fictional world. I have heard the overarching message of this is power and who gets to use it. Headland is putting message before story and in these two episodes have given us a bad fan film and not a quality project.
My hopes for an improving season are dim.
Warren Watched A Movie 